Best way to import Outlook 2011 to Apple Mail / Mac Mail
Here are the methods you can try to import Outlook 2011 to Apple Mail / Mac Mail:
- Import Mac Outlook 2011 / 2016 (OLM) via IMAP based emails account.
- Drag and drop Mailbox to Desktop.
- Using ‘OLM Extractor Pro’.
Importing Outlook 2011 to Apple Mail is not your usual data migration task. You can’t simply copy and paste the files from one database directory to the other. There is also no in-built feature in Apple Mail that allows importing contents from another application (like there is in Outlook Mac).
Therefore, users have come up with few different techniques that help in transferring of emails, contacts, calendar reminders, and others. Some of these techniques may be obvious, some not so much.
Sync Contents to an IMAP Based Email Account
The most common means of importing Outlook 2011 to Apple Mail is to use an intermediary email account. You can create a new dummy email account or use the one you already use. You just need the data capacity equal to the size of Outlook 2011 database that you want to import. And that’s the first major drawback of this approach.
Most of the users store data locally after deleting emails from the servers in order to save space. So, syncing the contents back to an email server can be unfeasible. Even if you do have some service that allows you a larger space capacity, the migration of data is often inaccurate this way.
The steps are simple: – Add your email account to Outlook 2011, sync your locally stored emails to that account, add the same account to Apple Mail, and this time, sync the contents from the servers to the client.
However, if at any stage, the internet connection is down, the data can be fragmented. And the obvious fact is that you also need a huge bandwidth to download and upload the data.
Drag and Drop the Folders from Outlook 2011 to Mac Desktop
There is one simple method that can be beneficial for users with few folders to migrate. Launch Outlook 2011, drag and drop the folders from Outlook 2011 to Mac desktop, and that will turn the contents inside the folders into MBOX. MBOX is a native file for Apple Mail. So you can easily import them to the Apple Mail client.
However, as with everything, this also comes with a lot of drawbacks.
- – It can’t be applied to contacts and calendar data, only for emails.
- – It is also very inaccurate. Most of the images converted this way are often damaged. This also applies to other data forms like attachments, metadata, and so on.
- – This takes a considerable amount of time. More the folders, more your precious hours are wasted. The biggest drawback is that you need to do this with each single folder individually, which can consume your time like you wouldn’t expect.
Other Ways to Import Outlook 2011 to Apple Mail
If you look around, you might find other ways to import emails from Outlook 2011 to Apple Mail. Some of them are quiet strange. And if you start to wonder whether they work or not, most likely the answer is always – they don’t.
One common misconception among non-experienced users is that the files only have different extensions or suffix, such as *olm and *mbox. They try to manually rename the files from .olm to .mbox, but sadly that is not how email migration works.
OLM files of Outlook 2011 have the contents specially structured and arranged in a way that fits in the email client’s functioning mode. In the same way, MBOX file has its own framework. And even though MBOX is a generic file, it has no similarity to OLM.
You cannot change an MP3 file to AVI file and turn the music file into a video file, similarly, you can’t rename an OLM fie to MBOX file and think they are converted from Outlook 2011 file to Mac Mail file.
“OLM Extractor Pro” for Importing Outlook 2011 to Apple Mail Most Efficiently!
The last option remains is to use a third-party converter that converts the files from OLM to Apple Mail compatible Mail database / file format.
These converters are not bulk renaming apps, but a complex data converters and extractors. Their job is to extract the information from OLM files and rebuild it for MBOX files in a multilayered process. A good converter is built with advanced data processing algorithms that ensures no amount of information is left behind or converted partially.
Therefore, even through an application, importing Outlook 2011 to Apple Mail can be hard if you don’t have a professional tool.
We recommend “OLM Extractor Pro” actively and almost all the time users needs to move Outlook 2011 emails to Apple Mail quickly and safely. It’s the only tool that has stood the test of time.
Click here to Download the free trial version. Like all other tools, it converts OLM files to MBOX, but does so in a way that makes it stand out from all the rest. It also has many unique features, an intuitive graphical interface, 24×7 customer support, and other qualities that would leave no doubt in your mind about its value and potential.